Monday, May 31, 2010

ContextMenuControl Utility LibraryWolfgang Pichler has released a really cool open-sourced utility library to add a right-click contextual menu to a map developed with the Google Maps API.

The contextual menu includes options to get directions, zoom in or out, center the map and find out 'What's here?'. In fact it mirrors very closely what you get if you right click on a map at maps.google.com.

To add the control to your own maps all you need to do is include the script tag for the source code and add the control with:

Quebec WildfiresAt the moment over 50 wildfires are raging in the Canadian province of Quebec. A number of the fires are active north of St. Lawrence Valley. SOPFEU, Canada's forest fire protection society, has a Google Map that shows the active fires in the Quebec area.

As well as showing the current location of the Quebec fires the map includes options to view a number of layers. The layers show where preventive measures are in force, areas where access is currently prohibited and areas where burning is banned.

Ontario's Air Monitoring StationsThis Google Map from the Government of Ontario, Canada shows the ozone concentration measurements from Ontario's air monitoring stations.

The map automatically shows the latest measurements but it is also possible to view the data for any hour in the last four years. A really nice feature of the map, and one I haven't seen on a Google Map mashup before, is the use of map insets. The map insets show in close up selected areas on the map.

If you click on any of the mapped air monitoring stations you will be taken to the station's home page.

MaposoMaposo is a collection of Google Maps satellite images that resemble household or well known objects. For example, the huge post-it note on the right was found in Thailand.

The site uses an animated slideshow to display the images, so all you need to do is load the page and sit back and relax and watch as the images flow past. Left and right navigation buttons are also provided, so if you get bored you can fast forward or, if something catches your eye, you can navigate back to view it again.

Currently Maposo has collected nearly 2,000 images from Google Maps.

Apophenia: The experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.

OldmosOldmos is a Russian website of historical photographs of Moscow. The home page of Oldmos features a prominent Google Map that shows the location of the historical photographs submitted to the site.

You can pan and zoom the map to view the photographs from different locations. You can also use the slider below the map to select to view only photographs from a specific date range. As well as browsing the historical photographs by map you can also browse them by those recently added and those that are top rated.

Vaarkaart Amsterdam Vaarkaart Amsterdam is a Google Map designed to help you navigate the canals of Amsterdam.

The site includes up-to-date information on locks, bridges and sections of canal that are currently shut for construction work or repairs. The map also shows the location of Amsterdam's marinas, gas stations, slipways and charging stations.

Vaarkaart Amsterdam has usefully mapped all the bridges on the canal network. As well as providing Street Views of all the bridges the map shows the bridge heights and the canal depths.

Finally, Vaarkaart Amsterdam has mapped the routes of a number of tours that you can take on its canal system. The tours include routes to see the best of the Western Isles, the Wallen district, the Plantage area and South Amsterdam.

Vaarkaart Amsterdam was created using the Geostart Google Maps creation tool.

The Free Gaza FlotillaSince August 2008, the Free Gaza Movement has sailed a number of voyages to Gaza. Today the latest voyage was intercepted by the Israeli navy.

The WitnessGAZA website has been tracking the progress of the flotilla as it travels across the Mediterranean Sea using Google Maps. The interception point has been marked on the map with a red map marker.

As well as the Google Map used to track the flotilla the WitnessGAZA website includes embedded videos taken during the voyage.

UpdateTragically when Israeli commandos boarded the Free Gaza Flotilla overnight more than 10 people were killed.

Israel says its soldiers were shot at and attacked with bars and knives.

Audrey Bomse, a spokesperson for the Free Gaza Movement says there was "absolutely no evidence of live fire" from the flotilla.

England Exam Results MapThis Google Map shows the GCSE exam results for 4,000 schools in England.If you click on any of the schools mapped you can view the average uncapped GCSE and equivalent point score per pupil in the school.

The buttons to the right of the map allow you to refine the schools shown on the map. You can refine the results to show the top performing or worst performing schools.

This map is another example of a Google Maps API V3 map displaying data from a Fusion Tables layer.

Version 3 of the Google Maps API has a Fusion Tables Layer class that allows you to create a Google Map from data held in a Google Fusion Table.

Map developers can use a Fusion Table to store location, line, polygon and associated data that they wish to display on a Google Map. Fusion Tables support an SQL like query language, which you can use to filter the features shown on a map. This means that a map developed from a Fusion Table can include some very powerful query features.

Unfortunately at the moment there isn't any information or support for adding a Fusion Table Layer in the Google Maps API v3 Tutorial. So, with the help of Soren from microformats.dk, I've put together this short tutorial which I hope will at least get you started creating a simple map with a Fusion Table Layer and a number of functions to query the data shown on the map.

Adding a Fusion Tables Layer to a Map

To add a Fusion Table to your map you need to ensure that the Fusion Table is set to public or to unlisted. To do this click on the 'Share' button in Fusion Tables and set the 'Visibility Options' to 'Public' or 'Unlisted'.

To add the Fusion Table to your map you need to know the id number of your table. The id number is the number at the end of the URL address of your Fusion Table. Here is an example of adding a Fusion Table Layer with an id number of '185419':

Examples: Here are three examples of simple maps that have included Fusion Tables Layers. Each of the maps uses essentially the same javascript code. The only real difference in the three maps is the Fusion Tables id number - so that each map is using data from a different Fusion Table.

To get started creating your own map just copy and paste the html from any of the above maps and change the Fusion Table id number to the number of your own table.

WikiPedia Articles - This example from ubilabs has the added bonus of using the new Styled Maps function as well as a Fusion Table.

Querying a Fusion Tables Layer

Probably the most powerful feature of the Fusion Tables Layer in Google Maps is the ability to query the data in your table and show the results on a Google Map.

For example, have a look at this map of Public Library Funding in Denmark. The buttons at the bottom of the map let you query the data to show only those areas that spend more than 500 kr a year and areas with more than 50,000 citizens.

To query your Fusion Table and load the results onto your map you need to include a javascript function. The map above includes a function that queries the data to show only the entries in the table that have a number over 500 in the column headed 'Biblioteksudgifter2009'. Here is that function:

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Mr Zip66's Easy Rider MapDenis Hopper's Easy Rider is to many the seminal counter-culture movie of the 1960's. Some of us may never get the chance to ride a bike across the States but thanks to Mr Zip we can follow the route on Google Maps.

Mr Zip has pieced together the locations used in the film and managed to put together a rough approximation of the route. The map itself is simple enough, showing the route in blue, with a few map markers showing the locations of some of the main scenes.

However what makes this an essential destination for fans of the film is the accompanying photographs and Mr Zip's knowledgeable commentary of what you can see and do if you are lucky enough to be able to undertake the trip yourself.

SpacebitsOn the 30th May Spacebits will be launching a high altitude balloon into the stratosphere. The balloon will travel about 100,000 feet before exploding. After it explodes an attached probe carrying the balloon's payload will return to Earth on a parachute.

The payload on board the high altitude balloon includes some quite expensive recording equipment so the Spacebits team are quite keen on recovering the probe. Therefore Spacebits will be using tracking the balloon and probe live.

For the occasion they have developed a live dashboard website that will show the probe's position live on a map. The dashboard will also show live a number of gauges that will be displaying the balloon's altitude, pressure and temperature.

If you can't wait for the launch the map is currently running as a demo of what you might see. The launch itself will be at 11AM UTC/GMT+1 tomorrow (30th May).

Friday, May 28, 2010

To start with the map includes the locations of thousands of points of interest around the world. You can access these points of interest by selecting ‘Lokaties NL’ for Dutch points of interest, 'Lokaties Overig' to select points of interest for other countries or 'Special' to browse by category.

Alternatively you can click on the map anywhere in the world to access information about your chosen location. When you click on the map an information window opens with a number of tabs to give you a whole host of information about your selected location.

If you click on the 'Algemeen' tab you will be given the full address of your selected location and links to YouTube videos, Wikipedia articles and Twitter messages around that area.

The 'Weer' tab will reveal the weather for your chosen location. Selecting 'Route' allows you to get driving directions to your chosen location.

The site also includes a fun Google Earth plug-in browser helicopter game. To fly a helicopter around any location in the world just click on the map and select the helicopter tab from the information window. Once you select 'helicopter' a Google Earth plug-in browser map will open of your selected location. You are now free to fly your helicopter at will.

Oh, and did I mention you can also view Street View and Bing Maps Birds Eye View for any location (where available).

NskgortransThe city of Novosibirsk in Russia has released a real-time tracking Google Map for the city's bus network. Using the map it is possible to view the locations in real-time of all the city's buses.

You can select to view buses on any individual bus line or select a combination of any lines. If you click on any of the displayed buses on a line you can view the schedule of when it will arrive at the stops on its route.

There is also a mobile phone optimised version of the site so that you can see how far away the next bus is when you are actually standing at a bus-stop.

Sitting With YouFrench website Culture Visuelle has put together a My Map of the locations of life-size sitting statues around the world. The statues are all of famous people and the collection includes the location of statues of John Lennon, Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln, amongst many others.

Street View Fender BenderGoogle Discovery have a report of a car crash involving a Google Street View car and another car in Brazil. Apparently neither of the two drivers involved was hurt in the collision.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

The site starts by displaying a random Street View from the collection and also shows nearby Street Views contributed by users of Google Earth Hacks. If you don't like the Street View that is presented you can just press the 'Show Random Street View' link and the site will generate another random Street View.

Alternatively, you can click on a yellow map marker at any location and view all the Street Views from Google Earth Hacks around your chosen location. This is a good way to find some of the interesting sights found on Google Street View around your home town.

Apres GardeThere are quite a few websites that collect fun and interesting finds from Google Street View. None of them however find quite so many beautiful shots as Apres Garde.

Matt Bucher recently wrote a guest post for Google Sightseeing explaining the rationale behind his personal choice of Street View images. He certainly does seem to have a good eye for the artistic shots captured by the Street View cameras.

I'm sure Apres Garde would be a great source of inspiration to the Street View artists out there. Such as Lehel Kovács, an Hungarian designer uses Google Street View as the starting point for his cityscapes.

Similarly, if you wish to take part in Bill Guffrey's Virtual Paintout I'm sure Apres Garde will get your creative juices flowing.

The Virtual Paintout is a blog that encourages the use of Google Street View as a resource for virtually travelling the world to find interesting locations and subjects to paint. Each month Bill sets a location and participants have to find an appropriate Street View from that location and paint the found image.

Roadtrip-o-MaticPennsylvania’s official tourism website VisitPA have released an excellent new travel guide called Roadtrip-o-Matic.

The new guide includes a number of pre-planned road trips (all using Google Maps) to showcase some of the state's favourite destinations. The pre-planned trips include Civil War Trails, Shopping Trips, the Artisan Tour and many others.

However if you don't want to follow one of the pre-planned roadtrips you can create your own. VisitPa has a number of Google Maps showing the locations of things to see and do in Pennsylvania. There are maps showcasing the state's arts and entertainment locations, festivals and fairs, history and heritage, outdoor recreation, shopping, sports, and wineries and breweries.

As you browse through VistPA's many Google Maps of the state's attractions if you come across something you would like to visit you can add it to your 'roadtrip planner'. When you have a number of locations saved you can then plan your roadtrip and view it on your very own Google Map.

If you are stuck for ideas you can view the hundreds of other roadtrips created and submitted by other users.

Trulia uses Google Maps to give users a quick view of the average listing price in every U.S. state. The tabs at the top of the map allow the user to switch between heat maps of the average listing price, the median sales price and Trulia popularity.

If you click on any of the states you can view the total number of homes for sale in the state and the average listing price. If you are interested in purchasing a new property at the moment then the cheapest prices are available in Ohio, but then that might be because it is a piano.

MaptrotMaptrot is another Google Maps creation tool that makes it very easy for anyone to create their own Google Map. Maps created in Maptrot can be viewed on the Maptrot website or can be embedded in your own website of blog.

Creating a map with Maptrot is a simple process. To add a location to a map you just click on the map and add a title and the information you want to appear in the marker window. You can also add different layers to your map by adding a KML or GeoRSS url.

When a map is finished users can choose from three settings for their published map. If you select 'private' then you will be the only one who can view the map. If you select 'shared' then you can choose who can view your map. If you select 'published' then your map can be viewed by anyone.

To give you a taste of the kinds of maps you can create with Maptrot here is a fairly random selection of user created maps:

Plyce is the latest entrant into the location-based social network market. It is a market that is currently dominated by the likes of Foursquare, Brightkite and Gowalla.Plyce uses Google Maps for many of its featured networking options. With Plyce you can find where your friends currently are and see which of your friends are around your current location directly from the in-built Google Map.

Plyce also lets you check for friends you have in common on Facebook with people around your location. So if someone in your immediate vicinity is friends with one of your friends they will show up on your map.

This one degree of separation feature could just be Plyce's unique selling point and certainly could prove to be a great networking tool.

Plyce also lets you check into and save your favourite places, gives you badges and has a weekly ranking table of users.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Google's Economic ImpactGoogle have released a report that details the company’s economic impact in all 50 U.S. states. But why read a report when you can get the bottom line just by clicking on a state on a Google Map?

Across the U.S. Google's search and advertising tools generated $54 billion of economic activity in 2009. Google's Economic Impact Google Map shows how the search giant has helped hundreds of businesses in every U.S. state.

If you click on a state on Google's Map you can view the total amount of economic activity and how many state businesses, website publishers and non-profits benefited. Each information window also includes a link to download that state's report.

SafeRoadMapsGoogle Maps Mania favourite SafeRoadsMap is back with version 2.0 of their Fatality Analysis Reporting System. SafeRoadMaps use Google Maps to map every reported traffic accident in the USA. Using the map anyone in the United States can view the roads with the most fatal crashes in their neighborhood.

With version 2.0 of SafeRoadMaps users can also view heat maps of any location in the USA. The heat map shows the number of road fatalities using different colours, with blue indicating no fatalities and yellow a high concentration of accidents.

As with version 1 you can still use the map to view the roads with the most fatal crashes in your area. Users can filter a search of accidents in their area by age and determine whether speeding, drinking or not wearing a seat belt was a factor in the fatality. It is also possible to use the maps to determine which states have aggressive driving laws, license suspension laws and seat belt enforcement laws.

FindaSpring.comFindaSpring.com is a community and user created database of natural springs around the world. The site features a prominent Google Map which allows the user to search for a natural spring by location.

If you click any of the mapped springs an information window loads informing you whether there is a fee or not, whether their is public access to the spring and if the water flow is continuous or not. There is also a link to the full listing of the spring on FindaSpring.com

If you know of a spring that is not on the map you can add it to the map.

Some Experiments with Google MapsThis morning I've been revisiting the Google Maps experiments on maps.forum.nu. This site has some great examples of what can be achieved with the Google Maps API.

I particularly like these two Google Maps examples which could be very useful for anyone thinking of building a route planner with the Google Maps API.

POIs Along a RouteThis route planning map can show you points of information along your route. So, for example, the map can show you all fast food outlets along your route. Alternatively you could build a map that showed all gas stations along a route.

Driving Radius MapThis is a cool experiment to show driving routes that lead to 30 miles around a given point. If you click on the map the map will load routes around that location that will take you 30 miles away.

I can see a few practical applications for this experiment. If you used it in conjunction with walking directions or biking directions you could load suggested routes around a point. You could allow the user to define the route distance so, for example, you could show the user a number of ten mile bike rides or hikes around any given point.

Denmark has become the first European country to have it's whole rail and bus network made available on Google Maps. So now, wherever you are in Denmark, you can get public transit directions to anywhere else in the country.

The directions includes buses, S-trains, trains, metro and ferries. The travel data seems to be coming from Rejseplanen.

Users of the map can use a slide-control to adjust the river’s flow and height and view the predicted flood effect directly on the map. The maps also include a risk calculator that allows you to calculate the risk of specific areas being flooded.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The site uses Google Maps to show the position of planes in flight over Europe, some areas of the USA, Turkey and sporadic coverage elsewhere. If you want to find out exactly where Plane Finder has flight coverage you can check out their Plane Coverage Map, which shows where the map is active.

Like other flight trackers Plane Finder users plane shaped map markers to show the current position of planes. If you click on a marker you can view the plane's flight track and also information about the flight, destination and speed.

If you select the 'Sitios' option at the top of the map you can find hundreds of points of interest in many different categories, including culture, restaurants and sport.

If you select the 'Seguridad' option you can view crimes committed in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla and Cartagena. The crimes are displayed in a number of different categories, each of which gets it's own type of map marker.

If you select 'Transporte' you can view the bus and metro routes in Medellín. The map sidebar contains quick links to differnet regions in the city. If you click on the 'consult local routes' option and then click on the map you can view all the nearest bus lines to your selected location. Alternatively you can select a bus or metro line form the map sidebar.

Map-LogicMap-Logic are using Google Maps to provide a number of free online Postcode Area and District boundary maps for Great Britain.

Users can view different region maps of Great Britain, view the extent of Postcode Districts in each region and click on the map to retrieve the district's postcode.

Map-Logic say that at the moment they haven't worked out a way of showing all the labels for all Districts at the same time, so to retrieve a region's postcode you need to click the region on the map. Another omission is a search feature. It would be nice to be able to type in a postcode and be shown the relevant region on the map.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Rider - Enjoy the RideThis beautiful looking Google Map contains lots of information about what to see and do in the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

The points of information on the map can be filtered by eating & drinking, culture, leisure, shopping and nightclubs. Clicking on any of the map markers opens an information window with details and photographs of the selected establishment.

Users of the map can vote each listed location 'up' or 'down'. Users can even vote for which Brazilian city they would next like to see have its own Rider Google Map.

You can use the included Google Map or use the iPhone's GPS to pinpoint your current location. You can then view images from the museum's collection that are in your vicinity. If you hold your iPhone up you can then look through the screen and see the historical image superimposed on the present day view.

The Creative Review have been testing the applications' augmented reality function. They have some truly astonishing screenshots of historical photographs overlaid on the modern view as seen through an iPhone.

This is probably the closest you will get to real time travelling until Dr Who drops in.

World Tourism MapThis heat map of the world is color-coded by level of 'touristiness', based on analysis of photos on Panoramio. Yellow indicates high levels of tourism, red indicates medium tourism, and blue low tourism.

Areas with no photos at all posted to Panoramio are grey. The map was produced by bluemoon.ee.

Remote Places MapThis Google Map purports to show the world's most interesting remote places. Again the map has been produced by an analysis of photographs uploaded to Panoramio, this time with a little help from analysing city names with GeoNames.

Yellow areas are very remote places with high tourism interest (e.g. Antarctica), green less so (e.g. mountains of New Zealand), and blue even less so (e.g. central Yucatan). Grey areas have no Panoramio photos or are not remote at all (e.g. New York City).

Google have open sourced the code of their Android live tracking app My Tracks.

My Tracks enables you to record GPS tracks from your mobile phone and view live statistics – such as time, speed, distance, and elevation – while hiking, biking, running or participating in other outdoor activities. Once recorded, you can then view your track on Google Maps (Google have a number of samples of maps created with My Tracks here).

So if you are planning to build a real-time tracking application for the Android market then a good place to start could be the My Tracks source code.

In Borraccia!In Borraccia! is an Italian campaign to reduce the consumption of plastic water bottles. As part of its campaign In Borraccia! is promoting these three Google Maps that promote the use of tap water over bottled water.

AltreconomiaThis Google Maps mashup shows restaurants in Italy that serve tap water so you don't have to pay for expensive bottled water.

The map includes quick links that help you zoom into different Italian regions. You can add the details of a restaurant that isn't already featured on the map.

Mappa Fontanelle Mappa Fontanelle provides a Google Map of water fountains in Milan. The idea behind the map is that you will refill your water bottle rather than buy a new one.

The site includes a Street View option so you can even check out the look of the water fountains online.

CAP - Case dell'AcquaIn collaboration with local councils CAP are building facilities for the distribution of still and sparkling water via tap rather than by bottle. The facilities are being built in parks and green spaces.

Tweat ItTweat.it is a Google Map that shows the locations in real-time of mobile food vendors in New York City.

Tweat.it automatically reads Tweets by public food vendors to find when a location is mentioned. It then plots that vendor on the map. This happens automatically in real time so you always have up-to-the-minute information about the location of your favorite food truck vendor.

If you are a mobile food vendor you can log-in to Tweat.it with your Twitter account and ensure that your latest location is always shown on the map.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

We couldn't let the Lost finale pass by without a mention. It's been nearly six years since the show first aired so it is a bit surprising that we have only seen two attempts to map references from the enigmatic TV programme.

However since one of those two maps is the excellent Washington Post's 'Lost Map' fans of the show should be satisfied.

Washington Post 'Lost' MapThe Washington Post have used their excellent Google Maps time-line interface 'TimeSpace' to try and make sense of of the labyrinthine plot of the popular television programme 'Lost'.

The map allows you to explore the show by year, location or season. The map markers include small summaries of the storyline and photographs of the show's stars. The information windows also contain links to episode explanations on Celebritology.

There is an embed option that allows you to put the map in your own website and the option to link to the current map view.

LOST MapsThis Google My Map has four collaborators who have been tirelessly mapping references from Lost. Well, actually not that tirelessly, as the map hasn't been updated for a while.

Roparun LiveThe Roparun is the longest non-stop relay race in the world, starting in Paris, France and ending in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The route covers approximately 530km.

This year all 275 teams in the race are being tracked live using Google Maps. The teams are listed in the map sidebar. If you click on a team's sidebar link or map marker you can view the team's current and average speed, the distance they have run and a predicted time for their arrival in Rotterdam.

The race is due to finish tomorrow (24th May 2010) so the map will be live today and for much of tomorrow.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

The map allows the user to view Flickr images for any location in the world. If you don't like the latest photographs for your location then you can use the time-line above the map to view Flickr photographs uploaded on different dates.

This addition of the time-line means that you can search for photographs for particular locations on specific dates, such as Washington on the day of President Obama's inauguration or Greenwich Park on the day of the London Marathon.

The DealmapThe Dealmap uses Google Maps to display all the best local deals, coupons and special offers. You can search the map by location and refine the results by a number of categories, including restaurants, shopping, hotels etc.

The Dealmap displays a heat map to show where deals are available. If you zoom in or search for a location the deals in that area are displayed above the map.

If you know of a deal that isn't on the map you can even add the details to Dealmap. You can follow Dealmap on Twitter, Facebook and a mobile app is coming soon .

Other Coupon Maps

8coupons - find the best deals from your local restaurants, bars, salons, and stores

National Weather Service TwitterThe National Weather Service have undertaken an experiment to search for Twitter messages that contain significant weather information.

Geotagged tweets allow the NWS to correlate each Tweet to its location and determine when it was sent. This capability they hope will help to enhance and increase timely and accurate online weather reporting.

This Google Map displays Tweets that mention #wxreport, #[state abbreviation]wx or a number of other weather related hashtags.